The present invention relates to a room lamp fixing structure in an automobile and more particularly to a room lamp fixing structure in which a room lamp is first attached to a trim before said trim thus attached with the room lamp is mounted to the automobile roof panel such that said room lamp is mounted to the roof panel together with the trim.
Conventionally, the room lamp fixing structure of this type was disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid Open to Public No. 6-65093. This device is structured such that a trim and a room lamp are mounted to the roof panel by pinching the trim between the flange of the room lamp and the bracket with a leaf spring forming said bracket, the tip end spring portion of said bracket being brought into engagement with an engagement hole formed in the roof panel.
In said prior art, the room lamp is mounted to the trim by inserting the room lamp into a lamp attaching hole formed in the trim; and the bracket is pressed into the clip of the room lamp such that the edge of the trim is held between the bracket and the body of the room lamp to involve troublesome work in attaching the room lamp to the trim.
Further, since the trim is attached to the roof panel at a different attaching position, said bracket is merely resiliently engaged in the hole to make the trim dangle from the roof panel; that is, the trim and the roof panel is not directly attached with each other with the result this very shaky attachment can lead to the generation of noise due to the vibration of the vehicle in motion and the play therefrom.
The present invention was made in order to solve the above mentioned problems and its object is to provide a room lamp fixing structure which can reduce the man hour for the assembly work on the assembly line of the automobile and which is free from the play due to vibration and the noise because the room lamp and the trim are fixed to the roof panel.
In order to realize the object of the invention, there is essentially provided a room lamp fixing structure in which a room lamp is fixed to the automobile roof panel, said structure comprising a room lamp fixing hole provided in the trim to be fixed to the roof panel; a plurality of projections provided in said trim; room-lamp-to-trim fixing means including a plurality of engagement recesses provided in the housing of said room lamp to receive said plurality of projections upon insertion of said housing into said room lamp fixing hole; and trim/room-lamp-to-roof-panel to fix said trim to said room lamp.
In the above mentioned room lamp fixing structure, said trim fixing means may include a fixing hole provided in the roof panel, a plurality of engagement step to come into engagement with the underside of said trim upon insertion of said housing into said fixing hole; and a plurality of elastic pinching piece provided in said housing to pinch said roof panel and said trim in cooperation with said plurality of engagement steps.
In the above mentioned room lamp fixing structure, said plurality of projections may have sides increasingly coming closer to each other toward the tip portions thereof, said plurality of projections coming into engagement with said plurality of recesses, said sides coming into engagement with the outer edge of said engagement recesses to restrain said room lamp from moving to and fro and right to left.